Entries from March 2009 ↓

Here are a few pics from the book tour journey, all taken with the shoddy camera on my phone.

I’m here at the Liquid Planet cafe in Missoula, Montana – across the street from Fact & Fiction where I read tonight.

The ugly house I lived in while I went to Evergreen

Two cyclops

I heart The Stranger

Secret Garden books!

Embedded scissors near Third Place Books

I rented a Prius - and spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about gas and bickering with the passive-aggressive, know-it-all (but generally fun) car. One example: I have a habit of leaning my arm on the passenger seat, which Prius would then interpret as a passenger there and would sound its PASSENGER SEATBELT! alarm. It was spooky, as if I'd picked up a ghost rider along the way.

A propellor plane! I was too shy to talk to my seat-mate who was cute and reading articles on astro-physics. Instead I went deep into reading The Manual of Detection and laughed into my sleeve half the ride over.

Fact & Fiction - so nice. They made their own posters! I want one.

Thanks to Kevin Sampsell (of Future Tense Publishing) for the interview on  Powell’s Books blog today – which contains a picture of Dave Eggers’ couch, a section on premonitions at a basketball game and a photo of me wearing a hat. It also links to the strange little bike film made with my co-conspirator, Levin Schersvanaskitty.

Yes, the rumors are true: I’ll be in your town searching for the perfect cinnamon roll.

<—- IS THIS IT?!

If I find the time, I may also read at a book store. The cinnamon roll quest is scheduled around the following divine cinnamony space-time manifestations:

Portland, OR – Powell’s Books, March 16th, starting at 5:00pm. I’m part of Powell’s Smallpressalooza put on by Kevin Sampsell of Future Tense, so there will be a lot of readings this night. Here’s the full list and it looks great:

5:00 Starlite Motel (“Night Bomb”)
5:15 Zachary Schomburg (“The Pond”)
5:30 Tim Sproul (“How to Leave Your Hometown for Good”)
6:00 Ronault L.S. Catalani AKA Polo (“Counter Culture”)
6:15 Emiko Badillo (“Broken Hipster” zine)
6:30 Matt Briggs (“The End Is the Beginning”)
7:00 Moe Bowstern (“Xtra Tuf” zine)
7:15 Karen Giezyng (“Bumpstart” zine)
7:30 Lia Cunningham (“The People I Love Best” zine)
8:00 Molly McNett (“One Dog Happy”)
8:15 Benjamin Parzybok (“Couch”)
8:30 Evan Schneider (“Boneshaker” zine)
9:00 Samuel Ligon (“Drift and Swerve”)
9:15 Jeff Stewart (“March of Time & Skin”)
9:30 Riley Michael Parker (“Our Beloved 26th”)
9:46 – 12:01 – Dionysian cinnamon roll engorgement!

Should be a great night. I have no idea what I’ll read, but there certainly seems to be quite a few books in the store to choose from.

The rest of the schedule may be seen in detail here: http://booktour.com/author/benjamin_parzybok

March 17th – Olympia, WA – Orca Books!

March 18th – Tacoma, WA – Garfield Book Company at PLU

March 19th – Seattle, WA – Seattle Public Library – Ballard Branch (via Secret Garden Books)

March 21th – Bellingham, WA – Village Books

March 23rd – Missoula, MT -Fact & Fiction

March 24th – Dillon, MT – The Bookstore

March 25th – Spokane, WA – Auntie’s Books – oh look, an Ugly Couch Contest at Auntie’s! – click to see fullsize:

Please help me find the perfect cinnamon roll.

Yours,
Ben

Two pics I took from the halls of the elementary school I was in last night.

I especially love the “No! Name! Calling! Week!” — can’t we have that as a national holiday?

Also note that at Voice Level zero, students are advised not to eat fish skeletons.

Ubiquitous internet through the air is cool and so sci-fi. I loved the setup process — get a modem in the mail, plug it in, voila! Yes, having all that signal stream through my brain makes me nervous – but we’re already doing that to ourselves in no small amount.

Alternately: Comcast drives me crazy. They’re too expensive, hard to reach, and I don’t want their TV crap. I just want the pipe.

But look at these speed differences:

Clear WiMax (on the fastest plan, ~6MB):

Comcast (re-installed today)

To be fair: Clear tried hard. They were very friendly, their support was patient and knowledgeable. I tried their suggestions and once or twice got up near 4mb…but never consistently.

If you happen to be in an area where you get a better signal, and if you’re not running a freelance web dev business, maybe you’ll get better mileage. Sadly, I’m on Comcast’s wire again, and Clear’s box is heading out.